


Talking to a stranger

by Mierke



Category: Red Band Society
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-27
Updated: 2015-02-27
Packaged: 2018-03-15 12:29:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3447242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mierke/pseuds/Mierke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma has a therapy assigned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Talking to a stranger

**Author's Note:**

> Written for February Bingo - "Meet & Greet: Just saying hi"

Emma had been working up her nerve for a couple of weeks, now. Her therapist had given her exercises to work on her self-esteem, and one of the exercises was talking to a stranger. She knew perfectly well which stranger she wanted to talk to, just not... how she was supposed to go about doing it.

She had forced herself to go the canteen, but was currently regretting it. Picking at her food and waiting for Leo to come in so she could pine some more didn't seem like the most productive use of her time. A couple of the girls who were in the same ward as she came in the room, and she hurriedly left her table, avoiding any contact. When she had been taken in to the hospital, her one thought of relief had been that at least she would finally found people among whom she belonged. But in the end, she felt just as out of place here as she had felt at school. 

She couldn't relate to any of them. They thought her weird and nerdy; she thought them shallow and fashion-obsessed. There seemed to be no common ground, and building a friendship seemed impossible. Her therapist had chided her for this, had told her to give them a chance, but being around them made her feel small and vulnerable.

Just when she had arrived at the door, when she wanted to escape through it, she ran into Leo. Not literally, which she secretly thought was a small relief, but she had stopped just a few inches from him. He smiled at her, and she stammered a hi through the butterflies in her stomach. Her way back to her room was accompanied by the echoes of his responded hi in her ears, and she wondered whether this would count as talking to a stranger.


End file.
